Phoenix Striker: Claw Mastery or Venom?

F

FrostBurn

New member
Phoenix Striker: Claw Mastery or Venom?

I was wondering if I could get some opinions on this little dilemma please. I have a Phoenix Striker at clvl 91, with four unused skill points. I've narrowed it down to either Claw Mastery or Venom to dump those last few points.

In theory, at clvl 99, I'll have a total of 12 unused skill points. Dumping them into Venom will increase my slvl 11 Venom from 225-245 damage to 505-525 damage (an increase of 280-280 damage). When I use Phoenix Strike, I attack at 7 fpa, and with FoF, CoT and DC, at 5 fpa per claw. Which ensures that my target is perpetually poisoned, since Venom works over 10 frames (0.4 secs). The downside is that many monsters have some degree of poison resistance.

Alternatively, I can dump those points into Claw Mastery, bring it from slvl 11 to slvl 23, and a 21% chance of Critical Strike (CS is not very useful for a mainly elemental MA 'sin). I plan to use 6 MA skillers and the cube in my inventory. At the moment with 3 skillers and removing my Steel GC's, my AR is below 5000. Pumping CM and adding another 3 skillers will bring it to 5500-6000. Since Nat's claw has ITD, the AR is only needed for champions and unique bosses. I'm only concerned about AR when meleeing Lister, and I estimate my CtH at below 70% with about 5500 AR when fighting Lister.

In practice, I doubt I'll even reach clvl 94 any time soon. Maybe clvl 92 in the near future. Which leaves only 5-6 spare skill points. So where do you think I should spend my points? 5-6 points in Venom wouldn't make a big difference, nor would 5-6 in CM (and I have ITD for regular monsters).

Thanks for any opinions.

PS. This is for SP and PvM, so no Torches or Anni's please.

Edit: To re-cap, it'll either be pump Venom for that little bit of extra damage (it'll only target one enemy, whereas my FoF, CoT and PS will do massive area of effect damage), or pump CM to help with my AR after I replace my Steel GC's with MA skillers (and the improved AR will only help with champions and bosses).
 
I vote Claw Mastery, although you may have other choices besides what you've presented to us.

Also remember that if you have Demon Limb you can use it when you fight bosses to help you hit.
 
Out of the two choices, I'd pick CM as well. Neither one will have an enormous impact in any case, especially since you're well past the biggest AR/mlvl bump.

My favorite places for putting points late in a Phoenix Striker's careeer are Death Sentry, Mind Blast, Weapon Block, and the Shadow. Fade or BoS would get some consideration as well if doing so would open up equipment possibilities.
 
Thanks to both of you for your opinions, and sorry for the late reply on my part.

I agree that neither CM or Venom will have an enormous impact at this clvl and with so few points left to spend. Venom does appeal slightly more than CM to me, but I already have it at slvl 11 with just 1 hard point invested, and adding another 4-5 points won't increase the damage by much, especially in comparison to PS2 that does 3-6600+ lightning damage per discharge.

So I guess I'll go with CM then. The little boost in AR will help my off-claw (Bartuc's) connect a little bit more often. Plus, it will also help when my PStriker is meleeing bosses or uniques or champions.

Just for anyone's interest, I ruled out these other major contenders as follows:

Mind Blast: With 1 hard point and at slvl 11, it serves wonderfully in stunning, converting, knock-backing, and creating general monster mayhem.

Weapon Block: Again at slvl 11 with 1 hard point, it blocks at 51%.

Shadow Master: Already maxed at slvl 30.

Death Sentry: This was a possibility, but I sometimes play at higher player settings, which make it less effective. I kill fast enough in a one player game that I don't need it, and a higher player game makes it much less useful. And I already have my hands full with so many hotkeys, e.g. SM, FoF, CoT, PS, MB, Blade Fury, CoS, BoS, DC... adding another skill to use would make it all the more confusing.

BoS: At slvl 11 (with 1 hard point), my PStriker with Nat's set, achieves the fastest attack speeds (EIAS of 91), so I don't need any more here.

CoS: 1 point wonder.

Dragon Flight: She runs so fast with BoS on, she doesn't need it, and she can MB to escape mobs.

So Claw Mastery it will be.
 
Frostburn, I'm wondering what you socketed for your equipment. Right now I'm using Nat's Set, Bartucs, 12 DR Dungo, +2MA /w 20Ias Glove, 28 Res Maras, Bk-Ring + R-frost. I'm not sure what to socket my gear with. Right now I'm thinking of socketing Nat's Armor with Um, Ral (need fire res), Ber. With the Um and Ral I will have max Resist in Hell, and with the Ber my Dr will be at 50DR even. For Nat's claw, Nats Helm, and Bartucs I have no clue what I should socket with.

Also, I'm wondering whats your Fhr and Ias for your phoenix striker?
 
My current Phoenix Striker is on single player, so my socketing options are less varied. I have (or had) a similar Phoenix Striker on b.net, which I built early this year, and I'll stick with her in mind for the following below:

Gear-wise, I use full Nat's (with Nat's claw as main-claw and Bartuc's as off-claw), Mara's, Dracul's, Verdungo's, Ravenfrost and BK ring.

Nat's claw gives 40% IAS. Your gear (and mine) gives a total of +10 to shadow disciplines. With 1 hard point in BoS, you reach slvl 11, which increases your attack speed by 46. As long as you have a slvl 11 BoS active,and combined with Nat's claw's 40% IAS, and a WSM of -15 (Nat's + Bartuc's), you will reach an EIAS of 91, which is the fastest breakpoint for both elemental and strike charge-ups. Specifically, 5 fpa per claw for elemental attacks and 7 fpa for strike attacks. So you don't need the 20% IAS on your gloves, although the +2 MA is good. I prefer Dracul's, even though Life Tap can over-ride CoS.

I have socketed Nat's armour with BerUmUm. As you said, it gives you max resists and 50% PDR. I also have a couple of 11% FR small charms and a 4% resist all charm to max resists out. I had left the helm unsocketed, but I would stick a -5% lightning facet in it, like I did with my single player Phoenix Striker. The claws are open to whatever you fancy. If wealth is not an issue, socket both with Ber runes for 20% CB each. Or Ist both of them for 60% MF, which will make her a novice MF'er. Otherwise, you can Amn them for more life leech, or use more -5% facets to further lower enemy resistances, or some other nice damage elemental jewels.

FHR is at 40% from Bartuc's and Verdungo's, and it serves well. IIRC, the next FHR breakpoint is at 48%. A couple of FHR charms can get you there, but for PvM, the 30% breakpoint is sufficient.

Lastly, I plan to use Shogukusha skillers in my inventory.
 
I decided to forget the Um in my Nat's Armor and just Ber it. I was surprised after doing all 3 Anya's quest with all my equip I have maxed res (with Ral in Nat's Helm. That leaves 2 free sockets in my Armor. What should I put in them?
Also, for my Nat's claw I can Ber it, but don't have another Ber for my Bartucs (going to Amn it). It it still worth the Ber for Nat's claw?

Another thing, my FHR right now is at 40. I'm thinking of adding shaels or shael/light facet to the 2 free sockets on my Nat's armor. Unless strikers do not need more than 40 Fhr?
 
You know, I very well might, just because the Master has spoken.. :laugh:

I have held off putting those 4 points into CM. I'm still hesitating, for some reason. The thing is, that I mainly do Baal runs with her. I have rolled a very nice WSK map, with entrances close to each other.

From WSK level 2 waypoint right up to Baal's first wave, I set the player setting at 1-3, and a couple of PS2 or FoF is more than sufficient to destroy anything, hence I don't really need the corpse explosion on Death Sentry.

With Baal's minions, I set the player setting to 8, so wouldn't the corpse explosion on DS be almost worthless? Sure, it does some damage, but is it worth the 4 points for that fraction of health removed from a players8 Minion of Destruction?
 
The thing to remember about the fact that corpse explosion damage doesn't scale up with playercount is that none of your other damage does either.

I sort of don't like having more than the one-point DS though. Not because it isn't good, but because it's a little *too* good and I like to stay pretty dependent on my charge-ups. From a practical standpoint though, it's teh oobur.

I meant to reply more to this like a week ago, but the boards weren't working. Anyway:

Mind Blast: With 1 hard point and at slvl 11, it serves wonderfully in stunning, converting, knock-backing, and creating general monster mayhem.

Weapon Block: Again at slvl 11 with 1 hard point, it blocks at 51%.
Click to expand...
Very sensible points. However I will say that every additional .2 seconds of stun you get from MB is pretty significant if you like using the skill as much as I do. And while 51% is definitely sufficient for WB, 56% at level 16 is another good breakpoint, especially for WSK runs.
 
Hmm, my 1 hard point DS will get me slvl 9 with +skills. That gives a radius of 6 yards for the CE of DS. When I fight Baal's minions, I alternate PS3 and PS2/PS1 to keep them almost perpetually frozen, especially with Lister's pack, since their knockback annoys me.

Which means that some of the bodies will shatter, making DS less useful. But if there are two or three bodies on the ground, then a quick DS will help a lot at low player settings, and help out at /players8. As you rightly say, my elemental damage doesn't increase at higher player settings either, so CE on DS will help a little. Considering that I use Nat's claw's ITD to build and release PS charges, CM will really offer little benefit.

As for MB, I don't like it all that much, mainly because I'm impatient for the monsters to 'unconvert' so that I can kill them. As such, increasing the conversion time is not good for me.:wink3: I only use MB when I need to create confusion for a quick escape or for Doom Knights so that I can kill the Oblivion Knights.

And thanks, but WB at only 1 hard point is enough for me. I also find it annoying when I can't build charges because my sin is too busy blocking Hydras' fireballs during Baal's council members wave.

Edit: Hmm, I just had an idea. I usually lead Ventar and Co away from Baal before meleeing them (to avoid Baal's decrepify curse). Since Ventar and Co are easy kills, I can then lead Lister and Co to Ventar's dead buddies, and then lay 5 DS's right on top of them. That should help lower their hitpoints, and any that die will in turn be blown up...... hmmmmm, what an intriguing idea.... heheheh.:evil:
 
FrostBurn said:
Edit: Hmm, I just had an idea. I usually lead Ventar and Co away from Baal before meleeing them (to avoid Baal's decrepify curse). Since Ventar and Co are easy kills, I can then lead Lister and Co to Ventar's dead buddies, and then lay 5 DS's right on top of them. That should help lower their hitpoints, and any that die will in turn be blown up...... hmmmmm, what an intriguing idea.... heheheh.:evil:
Click to expand...

That is indeed the key to a pretty easy Baal run, Assassin style. :thumbsup: I try to avoid using DS or freeze at all until Lister, and just pile up the bodies. Sometimes I'll even kite other monsters into the throne room. It's not really worth the time--especially since corpses have unreliable timers on them-- but it's fun.

Baal will clear out corpses with each wave if they're too close to him. But if you get them toward the end of the throne room it works great.

Btw, it's the stun time not the conversion duration that goes up with skill points. (though the conversion percentage itself does go up very slowly.)
 
Cool. I'm starting to really like the DS idea as an adjunct to dealing with Lister and Co. Perhaps if I get fed up with tackling them at /p8, I can set it down to /p1, and DS will really blow 'em to itty bits. Which makes for fast Baal runs, which in turn could be better experience-wise compared to /p8 runs.

I won't spend the points just yet; I'll give it a few days for the idea to sink in, just to be triply sure. But given that I've waited ages and still hesitated to pump either CM or Venom (since neither will offer great benefit at this stage), DS is proving an attractive alternative.

BIGeyedBUG said:
Btw, it's the stun time not the conversion duration that goes up with skill points. (though the conversion percentage itself does go up very slowly.)
Click to expand...
Oh yes, sorry, I understood your previous post, but it came out wrong when I typed my response. Yeah, the increased stun length is good. I would have considered it more if I used MB more often, but the conversion annoys me. I only really use it when I'm cornered, e.g. by Lister and Co, and MB is the only way to knock them back for a gap to dash through.

Thanks for persisting with the DS idea. It took a couple of posts, but it got through to me in the end.:wink3:
 
Log in to Reply / Create Site Account
Remove Ads - Go PurePremium

Latest posts

Back
Top